January 13th Memorial of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania
Memorial site

The monument is located in Vilnius, in front of the Second Palace of the Parliament (Seimas) of the Republic of Lithuania.
In January 1991, the people of Lithuania surrounded the Parliament Palace with barricades, in a fight for and in defence of their freedom. It was an attempt to protect Lithuania from military aggression by the Soviet Union of the time – Soviet attempts to stage a coup d’état in Lithuania and restore Soviet rule. Barricades surrounded the Parliament building until the end of 1992. In 1993, in front of the Palace of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, a unique memorial was erected – made of parts of the barricades and other relics – it was dedicated to the Lithuanian people who sacrificed their lives for freedom. On 13 January 1991, tragic events unfolded, as the Soviet Army and special forces occupied the Lithuanian Radio and Television Centre building and the television tower, killing 14 freedom fighters and injuring around 600 people. As the tenth anniversary of the Defenders of Freedom Day was approaching, a decision was made to preserve the composition by creating a memorial to 13 January. The Memorial was inaugurated in 2008.
The memorial preserves an authentic fragment of the 1991 parliamentary barricades and has a chapel with an icon to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The memorial displays objects brought by people and provides an insight into the events that took place during the defence of the independence of Lithuania.